Chapter 10 - Rosa

A blaring noise wakes me from sleep, and my heart immediately ratchets up to a million miles per hour. I grope for Kaila, who's sleeping with me in the queen bed. She's thrashing to get out from under the covers, and I help her get free. We stumble into the little living room area, and Olivia is there, her hair wild and standing on end.

"What is that?" Olivia shouts, and I shake my head at her. I can barely hear her. It must be an alarm of some sort—but does it need to be so loud? I push Kaila out the door, and we hurry through the hallway, going in a single-file line—Olivia in front, me in the back, and Kaila in the middle.

When the door slides open, Bigby stands in a pair of sweatpants and a soft shirt. Olivia screams, which adds to the blaring of the alarm.

"This way!" Bigby shouts; at the same time, Olivia says, "Shit! Sorry!"

We follow Bigby up a different hallway, which stretches longer. It feels like we walked for an hour, the beeping of the alarm falling muffled behind us. Every once in a while, we come to a door where Bigby scans his thumb before we go through.

When Kaila complains of being tired and not wanting to walk, I try to reason with her, but Bigby just scoops her up in his arms and keeps walking like it's nothing. I glare at him, but Kaila cuddles in, falling asleep almost immediately.

We finally reach the end of the hallway, and the door opens into what looks like an unfinished basement. After climbing the steps, we emerge into an unfinished room leading to a hallway littered with construction tools. Then, we're in a huge, gorgeous kitchen.

"Bigby," Linnea says, coming over to us immediately when we show up. Byron is at the kitchen island in his boxers and a shirt, typing madly at the laptop, and Aris is pacing back and forth, also in his pajamas. "Thank the Gods, you're okay."

"What's going on?" I ask, watching as Bigby sets Kaila down on a couch, tucking a pillow under her head and covering her with a blanket. I resent how thoughtful he's being. I resent the way it makes my heart defrost toward him.

"There was—" Linnea sucked in a sharp breath, shaking her head and pinching the bridge of her nose. A moment later, she starts to cry, and Aris tucks her into his arms.

"There was a cybersecurity breach," Byron says, not looking up from his laptop. He reaches over, taking a drink from an open energy drink on the counter, his left hand still flying along on the keyboard. "Approximately one hour and twenty-four minutes ago. I'm working on it."

Olivia goes to stand behind him, her eyes moving rapidly back and forth along the screen.

"Holy shit," she says, glancing at Aris and Linnea. "That compound is a lot bigger than the space you showed us."

"Yes," Aris says. "It spans the entire town. The part for Linnea's program is directly under the old bar."

"What else is down there?" Olivia asks.

"When Varun was alpha, he was…experimenting with a serum. There are some shifters down there who were tested on. We're trying to find an antidote for it, but it hasn't proven fruitful yet."

My brain lights up at the idea of solving that problem. It's been years since I had the chance to properly use my knowledge, but I can't think about it now. I focus.

"How close did they come to us?"

"The security breach didn't actually happen in that section, but Linnea just wanted to be safe. That's why she asked Bigby to collect you."

"How did he get there so fast?" I ask, remembering the long walk from the compound to our entrance in Aris and Linnea's home. Even if he shifted, there's no way he could have made it that far in the four minutes it took us to get to the front door.

"Oh," Linnea says, sniffling and glancing at Bigby. "I—"

"I've been sleeping there," Bigby admits, his eyes locked on mine. I look away. Looking at his is painful, like staring at a food commercial when you're hungry or watching everyone else attend an event you can't make. My body yearns to touch him, to feel him again. I stifle it.

"You've been—" Olivia starts, but Byron lets out a loud noise, which startles everyone.

"Sorry," he says, shaking his head. "False alarm. Thought I had it."

"If you look at the…" Olivia starts, dragging up her own chair and settling in beside him.

"What do you mean you've been sleeping there?" I ask quietly enough that the others can't hear us. "I thought Linnea said we're the only ones with access."

"That's true," Bigby says, sheepishly rubbing his hand across the back of his head. "I've been sleeping in the old bar."

"In…the old bar?" I ask dumbly.

"Yeah."

"Where?"

"On the floor."

" On the floor ," I say, shaking my head. "Are you stupid?"

"Not on paper, no," Bigby says, raising an eyebrow at me. "But you knew that."

"You don't have to do that. Sleep in the old bar."

"Believe me when I tell you I wish I didn't. But I do."

"We were probably safe, we—"

"It's not that."

Again, with the mating bond inclination. I can feel it between us; it's tenuous but there. But I don't care—I've heard about plenty of women who rejected their mates when they didn't feel they were the right choice. Addicts, lazy, or just not right. Just because there's a mating bond forming between us doesn't mean I have to give in and accept it. Soon enough, Kaila and I will return to California, and I won't have to worry about the bond.

It's always worse for the male shifter, anyway.

Bigby and I stand in a silent face-off for a long moment. I do feel bad that he's sleeping on the floor, but it feels like the appetizer of punishment for what he deserves for abandoning me.

"So," I say, clearing my throat. Linnea jerked away from Aris, looking like she was about to fall asleep in his arms. For a brief moment, I feel a stab of jealousy at the idea of getting support from another person, from someone strong enough to carry me, but I push it away. "When can we go back?"

"Go back?" Linnea asks.

"To bed?"

"Oh," Linnea says, shaking her head. "I can't, in good conscience, let you go back down there. Not until we identify the security breach and ensure it can't happen again."

"So, what? Are we staying here?"

Linnea and Aris glance at one another.

"At full restoration, we'd have more than enough to accommodate you," Aris says apologetically, "but the entire west wing is under construction right now. We have a guest room with two double beds, but Byron is in one of those. You could stay in there—"

I glance at Bryon just as I see Bigby's hands tighten into fists. It's almost laughable, the fact that the very notion causes him pain, and I almost go along with it. Still, I see a look pass between Aris and Bigby, almost faster than light, and I can tell they're communicating through their pack bond.

"I'll stay here," Olivia says, and I can tell she's thinking about the fact that I won't want Linnea staying in a room with a strange man. "I can help Byron with this. The faster we get it solved, the faster we can get back into the compound."

"I don't need help," Byron says, in a tone that's neither angry nor joking. It's just a matter of fact.

"Rosa and Kaila can stay in my guest room," Bigby says, and I whirl around, rolling my eyes at him.

"Over my dead body," I say through gritted teeth. If I were honest with myself, I would acknowledge the real reason I don't want to stay with him—I'm worried that if he's accessible to me, I might give in to the urges that plague me when he's around.

"I'm so sorry, Rosa," Linnea says, "but it looks like our only option for right now. Byron is going to work on this around the clock until we can figure out who caused the security breach."

"It's strange because the system accepted the thumbprint but also doesn't have it registered in the system," Olivia says, apparently having gathered that just from looking at Byron's screen. He glances at her, eyebrows raised.

"Exactly," he says slowly. "That's why it's difficult to figure out. I don't know why the system would treat it that way. It should either be an acceptance or a denial. Whoever this guy is, he did a great job at breaking through our firewall."

"Right," Olivia says, rolling her eyes, "because it had to be a guy."

"Do you know what they wanted?" Linnea asks. "Why would someone do this? Break in like that?"

"Well," Byron says, swallowing and taking a deep breath. "It's not good news. Whoever broke in—they took the remaining stock of the silver vials."

"The silver vials?" Olivia says.

"The serum," Aris breathes, releasing Linnea and scrubbing his hands through his hair. "So, our chemists are done, then? Unless we can recover it?"

"There are a few samples left," Byron says, but that's it."

"I can help," I say before I realize what I'm saying. I swallow, then glance back at Bigby, who has a knowing look in his eyes. "I have a master's in biochemical engineering. I've also studied shifter anatomy quite a bit."

"We would love your help," Linnea says, glancing at Aris, "but first, we'd better get everyone back to bed."

Olivia and Byron stay at the kitchen table, but Aris pulls Bigby aside, handing him a set of keys. Walking past me, Bigby heads to the couch. He stops and glances at me.

We hold our gazes for a long moment, then, because I have no other choice, I nod, and Bigby picks his daughter up in his arms, walking us both out to Aris's truck.